I received a phone call just recently from a person I just met awhile ago and he was interested in acquiring my services for Internet related work. Apparently he was having trouble in setting up his e-mail account for his site and phoned me to ask if he could just send me the information to set it up for him. Since he mentioned it was kind of urgent, that meant not being paid for it.

I was just kind of thinking in my mind whether or not I should as many times people tend to continually expect you to do things for free for them in these fashions. This situation is a little more awkward as well considering the intent was to establish a working business relationship.

In the end, I did mention that I would be willing to help him set it up since it should be fairly quick I thought. Too nice in a business situation? Maybe, but just glad to help I guess.

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I was just reading this article on how there are apparently hundreds of Starbucks stores that are closing down due to them being unprofitable. At the end of the article there was sure an interesting contrast to the situation where they state that investors are all happy yet for the economy it is gloomy as thousands of jobs will be lost.

Kind of interesting when you think about it as in one sense I guess it’s true about the lost jobs and all. At the same time, the economy also relies on investors too to create new business which means they need their money. All about balance I suppose.

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Here in Vancouver there is a very known street area located at Hastings and Main where a lot of homeless people and illegal drug transactions often take place. I was talking to a business owner recently who knew another person that ran a business around that area.

He told me stories such as how the owner has such a hard time attracting customers as homeless people would often come into the store or hang around the entrance area which would discourage people from going near it. He even joked a bit on how whenever he went down there it appeared that there were more transactions happening on the streets of that area than any of the businesses.

I know a little further west there are similar problems and there are plans to renovate a lot of the buildings in time for the 2010 Olympics. It’s kind of interesting though as there are sides against these types of changes as they feel it is pushing poor people away even more and at the same time others say it’s good to start revitalizing the area.

I guess a big reason why people would setup a business in these types of areas initially is the cheap real estate. I can’t say that I have ever honestly seen one business by itself completely change say a whole neighborhood from a poor image to a more neutral one. It usually takes a few others as well. Although, I will be amazed if that area changes as ever since I was a child it has always been like that.

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Recently I was talking to a gentleman who says that he refuses to pay regular prices for various services especially with companies who have all these special fees in the final bill. Literally, for services such as the telephone he will keep asking for the person’s supervisor and then their supervisor until someone gives him a deal.

He was then telling me about an incident where an elderly lady literally was so persistent in a similar matter where she was literally transferred to the CEO of the company who had no problem at all in giving her a discount. On top of that, the CEO then told her that the people she talked to would be addressed as well as the issue should have never gone that far.

In general, this usually is true where people who are persistent enough seem to be able to get all the deals and discounts that they want. I personally don’t like tactics like these though as it is kind of shady in some ways I feel. In my opinion, there is a difference between getting a good discount through things such as competitor pricing and inappropriately harassing people for one until the give in.

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I was pretty surprised yesterday as I bumped into a classmate from my elementary days. I didn’t even recognize her as we never really spoke or associated with each other outside of school. For some reason she recognized me though and I must admit that it was kind of shocking at first when someone who appears to be a stranger comes up to you and starts confirming details from your childhood just by you telling them your name.

Afterwards, we started to talk about our life thus far and what was happening. Her life story and situation was pretty dramatic I must say. In a nutshell, shortly after school it seemed like she went on to become a professional model and was pretty successful at it. Then not too long ago, a drunk driver crashed into her car pretty violently and as a result she has sustained severe back injuries that pretty much put a halt on her career.

She was saying how she even told her doctor that she couldn’t believe that it seemed like she had it all and was well on her way. Then because of this one incident it’s almost as if that dream and life opportunities are all gone now. Although she is still fighting through this, it was great to hear that she learned to deal with the situation by not dwelling over it but rather figuring out what to do now. For example, she mentioned that she always wanted to do more than just modeling and so this will definitely encourage that aspiration.

That was such a great attitude and perspective I thought as how one deals with adversity in life is an important foundation to being successful at anything. It doesn’t matter if you had say a million dollars today and then someone blindly robs you off it the next day. With the right attitude you will not only get it back eventually but also making yourself stronger and smarter.

I guess another way of putting it is that you have to learn to take the blocks that life throws at you and use them as steps to get higher as oppose to creating a non admirable pool that you swim in all day.

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